What do you think makes people remember a brand? It is just what products and services it offers or is it something else?
The latest branding statistics of 2020 suggest that it is not just the products that impact people but also the personalisation and presentation of a brand. The success of a brand is based on how they market their products and services, what colours they use and how unique and consistent their content is. It has also been found that customers agree to pay more if the brand claims to make a positive impact on the environment.
In other words, if you want people to remember your brand and buy your products, you need to build a consistent presence and personality. Most marketers and entrepreneurs understand this. That is why they put most efforts in making their brand visually impressive. But they often overlook creating a consistent and unique ‘brand voice’ which is another major element that can contribute to the overall success and likability of a brand.
Brand’s voice and its importance
The voice of a brand is a combination of its personality and emotional impact. It is reflected everywhere through the brand’s marketing campaigns, social media posts, customer support, website, blog posts, and all other kinds of company’s communications.
A brand needs to have a strong voice as it helps in making an impact on your current and potential customers. For instance, if you keep changing your company’s objectives every other month, your customers would get the impression that you are so confused with what to do. On the contrary, if you have clear objectives that reflect in all your communications, your customer would pursue you as a strong company that believes in its ideas and vision.
Therefore, it is necessary to send out a clear and consistent message to your customers if you want to establish a trustworthy and successful brand.
Top 7 ways to ensure that the content that you are creating is reflecting your brand’s voice:
#1 Decide how you want to talk about your brand
The first person who understands what your brand is all about is ‘you’. So, you must first have a clear idea of what you want people to say about your brand. For instance, if you sell vegan leather bags, you would want people to know how concerned you are about the environment. So, all your content should relate to it. Sometimes brands even come up with slogans or short phrases to convey the message. Also, they are easy to remember.
Similarly, if you want your customers to trust your brand, you need to start publishing content which is authoritative and reliable. Just keep reminding them of what value you are bringing in their lives and assure them that you are here to solve all of their problems.
#2 Find words that describe your brand the best
You must choose some adjectives or qualities that you want to associate with your brand. For instance, if you sell stationery products for students then you may use words like ‘school supplies’, ‘high-quality’, ‘personalised’, ‘colourful’, and ‘essential’. This way you will encapsulate your brand voice with words that describe you the best.
You must make sure that all your content is created keeping these attributes in mind. These attributes are the personality of the brand and therefore they must not mismatch anywhere. This would also enable customers to set clear expectations. When they are looking for a particular attribute in a product and your brand would be providing that, they would not think of going anywhere else.
#3 Make sure your team is well-acquainted
Is your team completely aware of your brand? Are your writers trained enough to write in a unified tone for the company? Well, if not, then you must bring all of your employees on the same page when it comes to the voice of your brand.
Every department must understand what is being expected of them. The marketing team and the content creators should be made clear of the vision and mission of your brand. They must be aware of what all attributes are to be associated with your brand so that they can create content accordingly.
You must always keep all your teams aware of the changes you want to make in your brand’s outlook and presentation. Otherwise, everyone would be telling a whole different story to the customers and it would create chaos and distrust amongst them.
#4 Make a list of what you don’t want to be
Till now we have told you to take note of how you want your brand to be perceived by the audience, what attributes you want to associate with your brand. But, knowing what you want to be is not enough to ensure that your content is reflecting your brand’s voice. You need to set some boundaries as well.
You must know what all your brand does not want to be. In other words, you must know which attributes you do not want to associate with your brand. There could be some particular phrases or buzzwords that you don’t ever want to use as a part of your brand’s voice. Make a list of those. For instance, most marketing agencies call themselves ‘social media experts’ these days. However, there could be many other attributes associated with a marketing brand.
#5 Review your published content
You must also keep a check on the content that you are publishing. If you are starting to consider your brand’s voice recently, take note of what kind of content you have already published. For instance, take a look at the past social media posts, past few blog posts, newsletters and other publications.
After going through all the content, decide what all impact your brand is creating. Think of whether it is what you expect from your brand or what changes could be made to enhance your content. Filter out any information or language usage that you do not approve of now and direct your teams. You might just want to set a fresh set of guidelines for content creation.
#6 Differentiate between a brand’s voice and tone
Many people use these terms interchangeably but there is a big difference between voice and tone of a brand. The voice, as we are discussing reflects the personality of the company. The tone, on the other hand, is the emotional aspect of the voice.
Consider it this way. When you are posting on social media regarding an upcoming sale of your brand, your content would reflect excitement and enthusiasm. On the contrary, if you are posting about an unexpected delay in the orders of your customers, your content cannot sound exciting. It should be reassuring that the customers will receive their products soon.
“Your voice must be consistent throughout the time but your tone could change as per the circumstances. Do not consider your brand’s voice and tone as the same things because you cannot convey your message with the same emotions every time,” says the branding expert of a company that offers Assignment Help Melbourne.
#7 See how well you know your customers
Are you delivering the right message to your customers? You must provide what seems relevant to your customers. Therefore, you need to understand who your customers are, what their preferences are and what all they are looking for from your brand.
Direct feedback from your customers could be of great help in understanding their perceptions and expectations. For instance, you can conduct a survey and ask your customers what they think of your brand. You might just ask for three adjectives that they want to associate with your brand.
You may also ask some open-ended questions regarding your brand in emails so that customers can pour their words. Sometimes, brands also ask their customers to rate their experience on a scale of 1-10. This method could also be very insightful.
Conclusion
Creating the voice of your brand is a progressive task. Start with seeking clarity about how you want your brand to be. Reflect the same in your content and communications of all kinds. Keep a check on the content you publish and check whether it is following your objectives or not. Keep all your team on the same page when it comes to reflecting your brand’s voice. Take feedback from your customers to get the real picture. Finally, make sure you do not confuse your brand’s voice with its tone. All this would help you understand whether your content is reflecting your brand’s voice convincingly or not.
Author’s Bio – Jessica Jones is an academic writer at Goassignmenthelp, a company based in the Australia which provides all kind of academic help to the students. She loves to write about technology, education, marketing, digital marketing, life, traveling, home improvement etc. His company not only helps children living in Australia but also helps in the study of children all over the world.